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Post by Deleted on Nov 27, 2014 8:12:05 GMT -8
Burlington Northern E9Au #9925 2nd was originally Chicago Burlington & Quincy or CB&Q EMD E9A 9995. The highest numbered unit on the Burlington it was built by EMD in August 1954. Upon the BN merger of Burlington, Great Northern, Northern Pacific and Spokane Portland & Seattle on March 2, 1970, CB&Q 9995 became BN 9995. It was sent to Morrison-Knudsen and rebuilt for commuter service in June 1973. The 1973 "phase" or as "rebuilt" appearance of these units consisted of flat or nearly flat pilot, all portholes removed, road number in white on lower panel, no louvers in side sheets, spark arrestors, raised panel in former steam generator area, orange reflective nose stripes, batteries moved to fuel tank.  Then the changes began mainly on the HEP system. Cooling and exhaust changes were nearly a yearly thing for the E9Au's. 9925 in January 1, 1974 less than a year after emerging from M-K. HEP cooling panel is drastically altered as is the exhaust. Louvers added to rear of body for HEP air intake in the white BN "Swoosh".  9925 in May 1978. More changes to the HEP cooling and exhaust. Still no red back-up light under headlight. Road numbers still in white on lower portion of the body. Spark arrestors still on prime mover exhaust.  9925 in October 1979. Spark arrestors are removed, red back-up light, road numbers now in green in white BN passenger "swoosh", HEP cooling and exhaust changes....again, louvers moved from "swoosh" to lower panels in car body and extra cooling fans and radiators for HEP unit added to non-dynamic hatch.  BN continued to make changes to the HEP system into the late 1980's. I'm modeling 9925 as it appears above. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 27, 2014 8:12:30 GMT -8
The model is a BLI E9A. First, I set the square pad in the former steam generator area on the model. It is made out of 0.80" Evergreen sheet styrene.   |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 27, 2014 8:22:30 GMT -8
There are three things that are total horse poop on the BLI E8/9A. 1. The notch in the fuel tank 2. The Farr grilles - now remedied by Plano. 3. The back door.  I think that BLI cut the back door for HO scale people of a 10 year old's height. The cheesy diaphragm is something I'd expect on a Tyco not a $250 HO model. So how do we correct this horrendous error? Install the back door from the Details West F-unit dress up kit! First order of business is adding some strip styrene to the face plate. On the prototype the "face plate" for lack of a better word is a couple of I-beams or technically they are collision posts.   Next cut in the DW door which is really quite nice. Only Highliners has done a better job.  At least an adult HO scale person can now get in the back door! Mount the I-beams and face plate to the BLI body.  Add the back up light and its conduit too. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 27, 2014 8:32:42 GMT -8
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Post by Deleted on Nov 27, 2014 8:38:32 GMT -8
Time for some HEP cooling piping and additional radiators.  The radiators in the non-dynamic hatch area are made from two Intermountain 36" fans from their F7A kits. I made the box from strip styrene. The HEP cooling pipes which run from the HEP gen-set to the front radiators is Details Associates brass wire. The straps are DA flat brass stock.    |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 27, 2014 8:43:11 GMT -8
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Post by Deleted on Nov 27, 2014 8:55:03 GMT -8
Time for the cab roof. The Q and the BN E's had two horns. I modified an Intermountain horn from their F7A kit for the two chime and used a Highliners horn for the single chime. The rotary beacon is a DA part. The conduit to the beacon is DA brass wire. The circular air vent is a DA part. The grab irons by the HEP cooling radiators is hand bent DA 0.012" brass wire.   The nose grabs are DA 0.012" wire I hand bent. The MU door on the nose is a Highliners etching. I frenched or flush mounted the nose MU door by drilling and removing some of the material behind it. Now it is flush like the prototype.   The step ledge on the side of the model is Evergreen L-shaped stock I modified.  During rebuilding the two louved vents found on the front of E and F units either side of the nose door were removed. I sanded them off and applied putty if needed. I also drilled the holes for the front MU signal hoses.  |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 27, 2014 9:00:13 GMT -8
Time to do the pilot. I cut the ugly BLI passenger pilot off of its anti-climber. I then used a Highliners passenger pilot I sanded till it gave me the near 90 degree angle of the prototype.   Now we need to extend the pilot and add the corner steps. I used some styrene which needed to also be bent and shaped. I slight heated the plastic so it could be molded to follow the curve of the pilot.   |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 27, 2014 9:10:05 GMT -8
Time to build the HEP exhaust stacks. Here is what you need.  The exhaust pipe is some K&S tubing.  The muffler is some soft bendable K&S tubing.   The K&S tubing for the exhaust will break if bent. To remedy the problem I use a little heat from a cigarette lighter I found on my sidewalk. This softens and allows the tube to bend without breaking.  The finished exhaust muffler and stack. To get the oblong muffler, I gently squeezed the bendable tubing with my pliers. The straps are some Evergreen strip stock which was slightly warmed and CA'd around the muffler.   |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 27, 2014 9:14:18 GMT -8
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Post by Deleted on Nov 27, 2014 9:18:17 GMT -8
Time to address the fuel tank. The BLI factory tank with its non-prototypical slot.  When these units were rebuilt they received new tanks with the battery boxes moved to the tank area. The new tanks were very square. I scratch built a new tank and added Plano EMD door latches to the battery box flats.   |
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Post by mlehman on Nov 27, 2014 9:21:16 GMT -8
Wonderful craftsmanship as always, Jim.  The new doggie pic in your avatar is great  Happy Thanksgiving in these trying times. |
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Post by gtws00 on Nov 27, 2014 9:50:40 GMT -8
Nice work on that BN E9. Thanks for posting the pictures.
George
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Post by Deleted on Nov 27, 2014 9:55:09 GMT -8
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Post by metraupwest on Nov 27, 2014 9:56:34 GMT -8
Looking great, Jim! Well done!!
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Post by onequiknova on Nov 27, 2014 10:14:45 GMT -8
Looks awesome Jim.
Is this a nee run unit? If so, do me a favor, peak inside the chassis and see if it has flywheels.
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Post by PennCentral on Nov 27, 2014 10:26:43 GMT -8
Great work! Excellent craftsmanship on display here.
Jason
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Post by TBird1958 on Nov 27, 2014 10:43:13 GMT -8
Looking great!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 27, 2014 12:17:42 GMT -8
Looks awesome Jim. Is this a nee run unit? If so, do me a favor, peak inside the chassis and see if it has flywheels. This years run and no flywheel. Didn't even pay attention to the lack of a flywheel when I had opened up. But it has dual speakers for the Paragon II sound. I'll take a flywheel and NO Paragon II sound, but alas that is no longer an option from BLI. |
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Post by onequiknova on Nov 27, 2014 12:35:45 GMT -8
I tore down a chassis a couple days ago to mill the frame and couldn't believe they omitted the flywheels on this run. What were they thinking?
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Post by Deleted on Nov 27, 2014 13:00:05 GMT -8
I tore down a chassis a couple days ago to mill the frame and couldn't believe they omitted the flywheels on this run. What were they thinking? Lately, with smoking diesels and other gadgets from BLI, I don't think they are thinking. But this is just own personal opinion. |
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Post by kentuckysouthernrwy on Nov 27, 2014 14:36:24 GMT -8
Only a guess but with most on dcc they might think that momentum settings in cvs will compensate for smoothness. Just my guess.
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Post by stevef45 on Nov 27, 2014 23:13:03 GMT -8
Jim, how long does it take you to build a model like this one from start to finish?
Also that bendable tubing, what size is it and do you think it can bend 90 degrees?
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Post by mlehman on Nov 28, 2014 7:00:48 GMT -8
Only a guess but with most on dcc they might think that momentum settings in cvs will compensate for smoothness. Just my guess. Karl, Yeah, in a good mechanism these days, that usually works. Problem is if any little thing gets out of whack with the driveline and that doesn't work as well. With the flywheels, physical things like a small imbalance, a yoke being in not quite right adjustment, etc tend to be forgiving unless badly in error. With DCC only and no flywheel, not so much. People do want amazing sound out of a loco and that requires as much speaker as can be made to fit. I've no experience with BLI sound, but it doesn't get much in the way of positive reviews here, so in a sense the big speakers only amplify another issue. I certainly prefer flywheels over the biggest speaker that will possibly fit, given I tend to run sound at subdued volumes that work just fine with quality small speakers. Even if your preference is sound, fiddling with CVs to make a problematic chassis run right can be a real PITA. With flywheels, you may never even notice many small issues and CV adjustment will be a piece of cake in many cases. A loco with flywheels is much more forgiving of the issues that arise over a typical lifetime. |
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Post by onequiknova on Nov 28, 2014 7:47:13 GMT -8
The chassis layout and speaker size are identical to the older runs. There is room for the flywheels, they just omitted them.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2014 9:47:12 GMT -8
Only a guess but with most on dcc they might think that momentum settings in cvs will compensate for smoothness. Just my guess. When I took the Digitrax dealer training program, the presenter stated "If a locomotive does not operate well under straight DC, it will also not operate very well under DCC. Yes, you can fiddle with CV's, but CV's can not totally compensate for short comings in the drive. Digitrax recommends you tell your customers to tune their drives to the top of their performance under straight DC. Once, you have a drive that operates well under DC, then adjusting CV's will make the drive operate at even a higher level." Flywheels even out a drive. Flywheels help a drive over DCC "friendly" dead switch frogs. If you look at an Atlas drive which is one of the best....guess what??? It has FLYWHEELS. Also, the Paragon II chip is a HORRIBLE sound decoder. It sure ain't no LOK or Tsunami. A decoder can only work with what it has mechanically and the elimination of flywheels may be a cost saving move by BLI. Right now, non-sound BLI E8's are non-existent on e-Bay and have been for many months. Even old run BLI units with QSI sound are not found. You find the latest run, but the old stuff isn't hitting the market. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2014 13:17:41 GMT -8
The chassis layout and speaker size are identical to the older runs. There is room for the flywheels, they just omitted them. Hey John, Have you run your flywheel less E9? I ran the BN E9Au drive just now on standard DC and I'm less than impressed. I then took an Atlas Master Silver SD24 drive from the last Atlas run and gave it an up and back. The Atlas drive with DUAL FLYWHEELS is buttery smooth. Can hardly hear it running. There is no glide or smoothness to the BLI flywheel less drive. |
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Post by onequiknova on Nov 28, 2014 13:45:01 GMT -8
The chassis layout and speaker size are identical to the older runs. There is room for the flywheels, they just omitted them. Hey John, Have you run your flywheel less E9? I ran the BN E9Au drive just now on standard DC and I'm less than impressed. I then took an Atlas Master Silver SD24 drive from the last Atlas run and gave it an up and back. The Atlas drive with DUAL FLYWHEELS is buttery smooth. Can hardly hear it running. There is no glide or smoothness to the BLI flywheel less drive. I have not run any of the new run units yet. I know from past experience the BLI E's run smooth, but the motors are a bit noisy. I'm not at all surprised they run like poop without flywheels. I've got some brass stock here I can make some flywheels with, or maybe a Kato swap is in order. |
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Post by Gary P on Nov 29, 2014 11:57:09 GMT -8
Jim - Those are some awesome MODELING pictures. Thanks for sharing! |
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Post by Judge Doom on Nov 29, 2014 14:03:38 GMT -8
That's some fine quality modeling work right there!
BLI, maybe all that loco smoke got to their engineers' heads, who knows...
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